4 Quick Tips For Optimizing Across the Sales Cycle

An editorial plan inspired by customer segment information and even buying cycle characteristics for those customer groups can be very helpful for great content optimization and social media promotion. Knowing when and why prospects use search engines helps content marketers decide what types of content, media and keywords to use. Using web analytics, conversion data, social media monitoring and other SEO metrics, we might be able to determine the following path for a particular customer segment:

1. Awareness:

Difficult problems solved by product X – The right content type might be a contributed article in relevant publications read by target audience. The article must be relevant and interesting to get read and shared, but also include keywords to make it easier to find on search engines where people are actively looking.

2. Interest:

Demonstration of product X to solve Y problem – For this stage, a video of the product on YouTube, embedded in a blog post, uploaded to Pinterest, G+ and Facebook can create multiple touch points for prospects to become more informed about how the product works and generate interest. Again, all instances would include optimization with relevant keywords and social topics to ensure the video content is easy to find where prospects are looking and interesting enough to share.

3. Consideration:

Reviews of product X – At the consideration stage, reviews can be very powerful. An effective content promotion tactic might be to pitch industry publications and blogs to review product X and use keywords in the product data and descriptions provided to reviewers. Creating a matrix of product X benefits along with competitors can provide a similar effect to a 3rd party review. It’s also an effective way to optimize content for competitor brand names.

4. Purchase:

Where to buy product X – Making it easy to buy is the low hanging fruit of optimizing across the sales cycle. When and where relevant, creating a store locator with geographically specific pages optimized for location keywords + product X attributes can be very effective at attracting end of funnel traffic. It can also be a way to “steal” traffic from larger competitors that are overly focused on top of funnel, category level phrases.

By planning content and keyword optimization across the buying cycle, brands can attract consumers whether they follow a linear path or connect to content through search at any point in between. To get a deep dive into how to make content marketing and search engine optimization work for you, be sure to pick up your copy of Optimize on Barnes & Noble or Amazon.